Evanston Alderman Would Like Clerk Out

September 05, 1995|By Jon Hilkevitch, Tribune Staff Writer.

An Evanston alderman said he will call for the city clerk to resign at Tuesday night's City Council meeting as a result of his discovery that the clerk collected $17,000 for unused sick days and vacation that she was ineligible to receive.

Ald. Art Newman (1st) described the transaction involving City Clerk Kris Davis as "official corruption" and "a direct ripoff of the taxpayer." Some of Newman's political allies called it the biggest example of closed-door chicanery to hit the North Shore municipality.

But others at City Hall interpreted the predicament of Davis, a 10-year veteran with a good reputation, differently. They say it's an honest, understandable mistake and an attempt at political assassination by Newman, the leading City Council critic of Mayor Lorraine Morton's administration.

Davis is an elected official, not a full-time employee such as a lawyer on the city's legal staff or a sanitary worker, and her salary is set by ordinance. A full-time employee in Evanston can accumulate unused sick days and vacation days and exchange them for cash.

That's what Davis did starting in 1994.

City Manager Eric Anderson said the error that led to the overpayment was made in 1978 before Davis took office. The clerk's position, that of an elected official with a salary set by ordinance, was misclassified as a full-time employee who is also eligible for other benefits.

In a memo issued after release of a legal opinion that the payments to Davis weren't legal, the clerk apologized and said she had initiated discussions to pay back the city.

"It neither occurred to me nor anyone else that this was illegal because everybody thinks of me as a full-time staff member," Davis said. "I've used two sick days in 10 years, and this is an attack by an alderman from the Chicago school of politics who thinks everybody is as conspiratorial and manipulative as he is. It's simply not the case."

Newman dismissed Davis' explanation as an apology issued after getting caught red-handed, and he placed a share of the blame on Anderson, who will soon depart Evanston after four years on the job to become city manager of Des Moines.

Newman said he came across the discrepancy in the clerk's $36,000 annual salary several weeks ago while leafing through a listing of municipal expenditures for last year.

He requested a clarification, which led to an opinion by the suburb's corporation counsel that Davis was ineligible for the benefits and must reimburse taxpayers.

But Corporation Counsel Jack Siegel said he found no intentional wrongdoing by Davis or any other officials.

Siegel said he was "satisfied that there was no attempt on the part of Ms. Davis in any way to violate any regulations."